Indian army resort to unprovoked firing at AJK PM’s helicopter near LoC

MIRPUR (AJK) Sept 30 (APP):Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan and his cabinet members narrowly escaped as Indian army personnel resorted to unprovoked firing at their helicopter close to the Line of Control (LoC) in Abaspur Tehsil of Haveili district on Sunday.
“We were in our own air space when the Indian army opened fire at the helicopter,” Raja Farooq Haider confirmed to APP over telephone Sunday night.
The AJK prime minister along with some ministers was travelling near Taraori village when bullets were reportedly fired at his helicopter without any provocation from an Indian post across the LoC. They were going to the Taraori village to condole with a former AJK prime minister over his brother’s death.
Raja Farooq said with the grace of Allah Almighty, they remained safe. Indians were making a false claim that their helicopter had violated the Indian air space. “The Indian claim is absolutely baseless as we were very much in our space. The Indian army resorted to unprovoked firing at the helicopter,” he added.
Responding to a question, Raja Farooq said their helicopter had flown in the AJK air space throughout the journey and when bullets were fired by the Indian army it was near the Taraori village. There was no question of violating the air space at the LOC, he added.
He said it was a private helicopter and not on a gunship one as claimed by the Indians. “We do not have any war mongering approach,” he said, adding that the Indian government was upset due to rising domestic unrest and wanted to divert the its public attention from the internal crises, that was why it was adopting such tactics.
To another question, the AJK prime minister said their helicopter was passing along this side of the LoC, which usually remained in the range of the firing from other side of the border. A civilian chopper, he added, could fly along the zero line at the LoC.
Farooq Haider said that the people of Jammu & Kashmir were acting as the first line of defence for Pakistan. The AJK people would fight shoulder to shoulder with the brave armed forces of Pakistan for every inch of the motherland if India attempted to launch any aggression from across the international border or the LoC, he added.
It may be added that firing incident comes a day after Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in his address at the United Nations General Assembly warned India of a matching response if it tried to cross the LoC or acted upon its so-called doctrine of limited war against Pakistan.